Have you started thinking about your holiday sales yet? According to our lab partners at White House Custom Colour (WHCC), there’s no such thing as too early.
According to WHCC’s Head of Strategy, Jed Taufer, “A holiday sale is an easy way to both delight customers and boost profits. Launching a promotion [early], or even just starting to talk about it on social media, [gives clients] a heads-up so they can plan accordingly.”
But how do you host a holiday sale for your photo studio? We’ve partnered with WHCC to share some of their best tips for hosting a holiday campaign in ShootProof. But first, let’s talk about whether or not a holiday sale is right for your studio.
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Should you host a holiday sale for your photo studio?
As we all know, the holidays are the busiest shopping season of the year. And while you might think of “holiday sales” and envision big crowds at retail stores, there’s also a massive boost in online sales. In fact, in 2022, there were $211.70 billion in online sales in November and December. Why shouldn’t your photography studio get a piece of that pie?
More than the potential revenue boost, holiday sales are also a fantastic way to give your clients the help they need during the holidays.
Parents are looking for unique gifts for their children, families are sending out personalized holiday cards to their loved ones, and couples are memorializing special moments like engagements, family gatherings, and more. Photography prints and products (and even photography services) are the perfect gift for virtually anyone this time of year.
What kind of holiday sale should you host?
Excited to run a holiday sale now, but aren’t sure what you’d sell? There are many ways to run a holiday sale for your studio; deciding what kind of sale to host just depends on your goals. Here are a few different types of sales and when they work best.
Discounted or free sessions
If you want a high volume of sales, consider offering free or discounted sessions. You can offer discounted sessions to new clients only, returning clients only, or both. Or you can even offer a free photo session, with the goal of upselling clients into prints or product purchases afterward.
Just remember not to price your sessions or the post-session prints and products so low that you’re no longer turning a profit.
Referral programs
Referral programs are another way to attract new clients during the holidays. Offering discounts or bonuses for each referral a client sends you could encourage them to share your business with potential new clients. After all, organic word-of-mouth referrals often yield high-quality prospects, at no cost to you!
Digital gift voucher
If you want a simple way to have someone “gift” your photography services, try using gift cards. You could run a promotion where people can “gift a session, which makes it easier for the recipient to choose their session date. You could also offer a double-dollar gift card where, for example, clients only pay $100 for a $200 gift card. You can use this for products or services.
BOGO sales
BOGO, or “buy one get one XX% off,” is notoriously hard to resist. BOGO sales can be used to help you sell more products during the holidays, and give you a great chance to drive some additional revenue without much effort.
Get clients. Get paid. Get happy.
Limited edition holiday packages
Another great option to drive revenue is to create a limited edition holiday package. This holiday package can combine some of your most popular holiday products, or offer a “packaged discount” on bigger purchases.
People love a good deal during the holidays, and offering yours for a limited time will have people springing into action. The two types of discounts we recommend in our new Holiday Sale Email Campaign are a “20% off all print products” discount (a “group” discount where prints, canvases, metals, and fine art prints are 20% off) and Free shipping on orders over $100.
Learn how to set up these discounts.
It’s time to create your holiday sale email campaign
Found the perfect holiday sale for your photo studio? Now it’s time to think about how you’ll promote the sale.
Email is one of the easiest ways to stay in touch with your clients, and to inform them of great sales you’ve got going on. But when your holiday sale is coming up, how do you get started? How can you create a successful email campaign? We’ve got you.
Here are the 5 steps to set up an email campaign that will make your holiday sale a success.
Holiday Sale Step #1: Set up your email campaign
(Totally new to email campaigns? We’ve got you covered.)
Speaking of emails, you can now choose to send an email campaign to just the Linked Contact, instead of to all gallery visitors.
Okay, you’re probably thinking, “It’s still September. Isn’t it a little early to be worrying about this?”
Funny you should ask! According to our lab partners, there’s no such thing as “too early.” In fact, the first week of October is one of the best times to run a holiday sale!
Learn how to announce your holiday sales with ShootProof email campaigns.
Pro tip: If you’ve been deleting your client galleries, instead consider archiving your galleries, especially for future promotional campaigns.
Holiday Sale Step #2: Assign email campaigns to galleries
Creating a tailored campaign helps you share more relevant updates with your clients. ShootProof allows you to create different email campaigns for each gallery, and you can also customize discounts for each one.
Pro tip: Be sure to take advantage of bulk actions to apply campaigns to multiple galleries, helping you get multiple galleries ready in less time. You can also use Gallery Presets so that your settings apply to future galleries automatically.
Holiday Sale Step #3: Add a marketing banner to your gallery
With ShootProof, your marketing banners are easily customizable — and the perfect place to reinforce messaging around your current holiday sale.
Consider using your gallery intro message as another place to announce your sale. Simply click on “Gallery Settings” to customize the features for your galleries.
To get started:
- Head over to Photos > Galleries
- Use Actions and select Settings
- Enter the Layout section
- Select to add a video or a text message
- Add a required Headline
This gives your message a brief title. Try, “Get your holiday sale discounts!”
- Add your message!
Pro tip: Add a video message! Check out this article for tips and tricks.
Holiday Sale Step #4: Automate your holiday sales
This last part is the easiest: schedule your holiday sales emails and let ShootProof do the rest! When you’ve drafted an email in ShootProof, you can either hit send or schedule it to send at a later date.
By hosting a sale early, you can avoid potential shipping delays and long production timelines, and create happy customers whose orders arrive in time for the holidays.
Our email campaign experts also recommend that you set up abandoned cart emails to capture more sales. This way, if someone adds something to their cart but they don’t check out, your system will trigger an email to remind them!
ShootProof’s automations also help you securely collect payments and you can deliver high-quality products to your clients through our partner labs. (No manual ordering or invoicing for you!)
Ready to boost your photo studio’s sales this holiday season?
The truth is: Your clients are shopping a lot during the holidays. Everyone is buying the same gifts for each other. Why not stand out and offer them something one-of-a-kind?
Existing clients and new clients will be thrilled that you took some of the shopping off their plate, and their friends and loved ones will be thrilled by the prints, heirloom products, or services they receive.
Best of all, your holiday sale doesn’t have to be a ton of work for you… when you use ShootProof.
ShootProof features help you easily prepare, automate, and launch your holiday sales campaign. The best part? You can follow these same steps to run sales and specials year-round.
Not a ShootProof member? Join for free to start using email campaigns today, and get ready for more sales and less stress.
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Photos by Katie Dawn Photo
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